"Ladies," Santana clapped her hands after putting on the neon yellow armband as her teammates were putting on their boots. "Important match today we have, if we win this we get to go to the finals which is the first time McKinley has done in over a decade. Come here," she said, and the team huddled together in a wide circle in the changing rooms

"Which is why we will win this, ladies," Santana said, voice nearly as low as a whisper. "Carmel is quite strong I have heard, so be prepared for anything. But if we play sensibly and we're careful, we will win. Work hard, and have fun!"

The team gave a loud cheer before Santana clapped one last time and they all went into the main corridor, where they had to queue in position next to the opposition as they waited for the referee to take them to the pitch.

Santana exhaled as she adjusted her captaincy armband at the top of her arm as she stood in position behind her fellow teammates. She was playing attacking midfielder and she was the captain, so she was at the very back. Sizing up the team that was standing opposite them she scanned each of them – most of them weren't that tall but they looked athletic. Santana narrowed her eyes – that was something she had to bear in mind in terms of their defence. They were most likely quick and agile so Santana would make sure that they were holding their backline and not getting too aggressive, opening up holes.

The referee finally came with a white football in her hands and the players soon followed in her wake.

"Girlies," Santana called as everybody was on the field and just about to get to their positions. "They're fast, we have to hold. Pierce, I know you love to overlap but stay back first today, after twenty minutes if I feel we can you can play more aggressively, got it?"

"Roger!" Brittany saluted before guiding the rest of the defenders and giving them a pep talk herself.

Santana walked up to the centre circle, where the referee was standing with the captain from the opposing team. Santana kept her head down on the grass, clutching the pennant in her hand as football tactics raged through her head. She would stop at nothing to win today.

Before she knew it, she was next to the referee and that was when she raised her head and saw the other team's captain for the first time.

And that was when her heart stopped.

Because the person standing opposite her had the most beautiful eyes Santana had ever seen. It was a swirl of hazel and green, mysterious and alluring. Her pink lips were pursed in a thin line as the wind levitated her shoulder-length blonde hair.

The opposing captain, clad in blue nodded courteously as she handed Santana a blue and green banner.

Santana blinked, snapping out of it and quickly held out their red banner for the blonde girl to take. She took it with a widening smile.

"Heads or tails?" the referee asked, and Santana stood there in her stupor for a few awkward seconds before she realised she was being addressed.

"Huh?" she blurted dumbly before the words from the referee registered into her head. "Uh… tails."

The referee nodded and tossed the coin, and it landed on tails.

"Side?" she asked.

Santana looked back at her players. "We'll stay on this one," she said, pointing to the left.

"Okay, Carmel gets kick-off," the referee said before stepping back.

"Good luck," the blonde girl smiled and wow.

Her voice was just as angelic as her ethereal face.

"Uh, good luck," Santana scrambled before Carmel's captain leaned forward for a quick hug and a handshake, and she was off.

Santana stared at her empty spot for a few seconds too long before she snapped out of it and got into position, seeing the beautiful blonde girl walk up to the centre circle which now had a ball placed on the spot, ready for kick-off.

Santana squinted at the name on her back, and it read… Fabray.

What a beautiful name.

Santana shook herself out of it for the umpteenth time over the last couple of minutes and nodded to her teammates, telling them to get ready. They were going to win this, no matter how pretty the opponent's team captain was!

The referee blew the whistle and Fabray passed the ball back to their attacking midfielder and the game was off.

"Rush!" Santana called to her strikers who immediately ran forward towards Carmel's defenders who just received the ball from their midfielder, applying instant pressure.

Santana herself ran forward too, but cut to the left when she saw that the blue full-back was free and raising her hand for the pass. She quickly dashed forward to cut the line and intercepted the ball at the edge of the box. She dribbled forward a bit before their nimble defensive midfielder cut her down fast and she was forced to cross.

Damn, they were so fast!

Santana tried a stepover but they weren't fooled, so she was forced to drag-back and cross with her right foot, towards the middle. Considering that was her weak foot, it wasn't a bad effort.

McKinley's striker was able to connect with Santana's cross with her head but Carmel's goalie tipped the attempt on goal over the bar for a corner.

"Great effort girls!" Santana called, clapping her hands again as she ran towards the corner flag to take the corner. "Pierce, stay back! Three back, two edge and rest in the box!" She shouted before retrieving the ball and jogging the rest of the distance to the corner flag.

It was about twenty-five minutes into their first 35-minute half when the first major event happened. Santana was proud of her team: they were holding well against strong opposition so Santana made the call to allow her full-backs to overlap. But doing so led to holes in Santana's defence so when another one of the Red's attacks broke down Carmel was able to break, and they broke fast.

The ball was passed to their striker, Fabray, and she sprinted down the centre and oh my god was she quick.

"Cover!" Santana shouted frantically as Fabray dribbled the ball past a defender with apparent ease and nutmegged the second defender, setting her up straight for goal.

Santana was fast, but Fabray was also so fast too. Santana dashed as fast as she could and she was covering the space slowly but surely, with Fabray slowed down slightly with dribbling the ball.

Santana made it there just in time, as Fabray prepped herself for a strike Santana started the slide and blocked Fabray's surprisingly powerful shot, making the ball fly fast towards the corner flag for a corner.

Santana stood up, panting from the burst as she panned her eyes upwards and that was when she met hazel-green eyes again. Fabray's jaw was open, and she was staring at Santana with an expression mixed with frustration, pride and awe all at the same time. It was strange, but it didn't change the fact that this girl was the prettiest girl that existed on this planet.

God, the slight glimmer of sweat on her skin making it glow, the sunlight shining on her gorgeous face, her lips, and her eyes… her eyes…

"Well played," Fabray huffed before walking away and that was when Santana finally stopped drooling.

God, what was happening to her? This was the very worst time to crush, especially when the object of her affection was the captain of the opposition!

Their goalkeeper caught the ball with ease and rolled it towards their central midfielder.

"Break!" Santana called as the ball was passed to their left wing, dashing forwards for a counter attack.

"Here!" Santana called and the ball was passed to her again, with her dribbling for a few seconds before a blue player closed her down from in front of her.

"Man on!" she heard someone shout so she laid the ball off to the right, who dashed straight down the sideline with blue shirts chasing her.

"Rose, Wilde, get in the box!" Santana called when their right-wing made it near the corner flag, being closed down by a blue shirt preventing the box.

"Back!" Santana shouted at her teammate, who passed the ball back to her. She rolled the ball off to the left, looked up and assessed her options. Her strikers were still in the box, anticipating a pass. But there was empty space in front of her. So much space.

Santana prepped her foot and struck the ball with the inside of her left foot for the far post, and she watched as it bended and dipped into the top left corner of the net, the keeper no chance.

"Vamos!" Santana screamed as teammates soon swarmed her for scoring, but through the haze of chaos she could see Fabray shouting words of encouragement at her teammates and couldn't help but feel an ember of admiration and affection shoot in her system.

Twenty minutes left in the game and it was still 1-0, Santana up. She was surprised that the score line had remained this way because she found herself staring at the blonde captain on the other side of the field more than once when she was not in the area of active play.

She really wanted to get closer to Carmel's captain, so that Santana could see her clearer, more often. Maybe get to know her name, get her number sometime…

Santana blinked. What the hell was that?

Santana watched the opposing team's corner get headed over the bar for a goal kick, and she made her decision. They were winning, so technically they needed to prioritise defence… right? Surely?

"Wilde, take my position," Santana commanded. "I'm playing centre-back."

"What?" Kitty shouted back incredulously. "Lopez, you're not a defender."

"I am now," Santana called. "We're dropping back, there's not long in the game left."

"Get our CDM to play centre back!" Kitty shouted. "Santana, we need you up in attack!"

"It'll be fine, trust me!" Santana called, waving at Kitty before she walked down the field, getting a few questioning stares from her teammates but she paid them no mind.

Because she kept on walking, until she stopped at their destination. Right next to the opposing team's captain.

The blue captain scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion. "Um, aren't you supposed to be up there?" she said, pointing down the field.

God, that voice. So angelic.

Santana could only trust herself to shake her head before Fabray blinked and walked up the field, as Santana's team built an attack.

She was so sick of referring to the gorgeous girl by her surname.

"Hey!" Santana called, jogging a few steps to the other captain as the ball was deflected for a corner. But when Fabray turned around and fixed her gaze on Santana with those eyes of hers, Santana lost her resolve.

"Hmm?"

"Oh, um… what's your name?" was all Santana could get out. God, was she pathetic. The last time she had this little game was… wait, she had never got this little game before.

"Quinn," Quinn laughed. "Why, you can't have come all the way here to ask me that."

"Well, we're parking the bus now," Santana said with uncharacteristic bashfulness. "I'm Santana, by the way."

"I know," Quinn replied as she watched the ball get caught by the keeper."

"W-Wait, how –" Santana started, but Quinn had already run away as the keeper booted the ball up the field to the right.

Santana blinked and Quinn was there, chesting the ball and scoop turning away from Brittany who flailed behind Quinn who was dribbling with incredible agility.

"Shit," Santana mumbled to herself as Quinn was approaching the edge of the box. Why was she so good? And so pretty?

Without her guidance, her team had committed too much to the corner, and now Quinn was singlehandedly counterattacking, with nothing but Santana and their left back who was too far back in defence.

Santana dashed and Quinn slowed down, body poised for any movement and keeping her eyes trained on Santana. But Santana wasn't fooled. She knew better than to get paralysed by those eyes; she kept her eye on the ball by Quinn's feet.

She watched Quinn do a few stepovers and then the ball went between her legs.

What?

She did not just get nutmegged.

Quinn ran past her into the box, the ball still in her control as she closed down the goalkeeper.

Santana ran in Quinn's wake, desperate to cover the spaces but Quinn was too quick. Santana couldn't afford to let Quinn shoot because her shot power and accuracy was too good and would almost certainly lead to an equaliser.

So she did the only thing she could think of in this dire situation. Slide tackle.

Sadly, she mistimed the slide and instead of her studs nudging the ball away from the danger zone her studs went straight to the side of Quinn's ankles instead.

Quinn screamed as she tripped and she fell heavily onto Santana, before bouncing off and rolling away, whining in agony as she clutched her foot with both hands, eyes clenched shut.

The whistle went off immediately, and Santana felt so much guilt. Not because she surely conceded a penalty… okay maybe that too, but that wasn't the main reason. Because she hurt Quinn in an awful tackle.

The referee was pointing to the spot and gave Santana a yellow card, which elicited outraged shouts from the opposition, saying how this was a denial of a goal so was a red.

But Santana tuned that out as she hastily got to her feet and rushed to Quinn a few metres away, who was still gripping her ankles, groaning in pain with a few tear tracks down her cheek.

It sent an indescribable sting up Santana's heart. She hurt Quinn.

"I'm so sorry," Santana rushed out as she put a hand on Quinn's shoulder, who was taking deep breaths to try to ease the pain. "Quinn, I'm so sorry…"

Quinn rubbed her eyes and sat up, giving her ankles a final rub before she sent Santana a forgiving smile. "It's okay," was all she said before she took Santana's outstretched hand, allowing herself to be pulled up.

"A-Are you sure?" Santana said worriedly. "I went stud-first into you, that's gotta –"

"It's okay, seriously," Quinn patted Santana's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, I don't feel it anymore."

Santana bit her lip and nodded as the penalty was set up.

Brittany gave her a disapproving look. "You're not a centre-back, Santana, maybe you should play back up front again."

"Maybe I should," Santana sighed, not wanting to hurt Quinn again.

"Why did you suddenly play CB?" Brittany said. "And don't tell me it's because you thought we needed more defenders."

"You're right," Santana mumbled.

Brittany said something, but stopped when Quinn ran towards the ball on the spot and converted the penalty.

Two minutes to full-time, and the score was 1-1. And now Santana had a good chance at goal, because she had a free kick that was about 25 yards away from the goal on the right side of the pitch, which was good for her left foot.

The other team was setting up their wall, and Santana couldn't help but notice how Quinn was in it too, a hand over her opposite shoulder as she stood next to her teammates.

"Should I take it," Kitty whispered and Santana shook herself out of her stupor. "I can cross it into the box instead."

"N-No," Santana said. "I'll go straight for goal, I think it's better that way."

"Okay," Kitty said, nodding.

Santana felt a sense of guilt when she saw Quinn looking at her again, remembering what happened twenty minutes ago when she hurt Quinn and gave away the penalty. But then Quinn's soft voice saying that it was okay echoed in her head.

She was going to try her best to score, she decided. Because it wasn't fair on her teammates if her personal issues hindered the team's performance.

"Kitty," Santana said and the blonde girl looked up. "Roll the ball to the left a bit away from the ball, I'm going to curve it near post and I need the extra curl."

"Alright," Kitty nodded. "Should we get a dummy for this then?"

"Yeah," Santana nodded. "Brittany!" she called and another blonde girl ran forward. "Pretend you're crossing, this would make the keeper take a step forward and Kitty will roll the ball for me to strike near post, okay?"

"Okay," Brittany nodded, and they all took a few steps back.

Santana took a deep breath as the whistle went off. Brittany ran forward but didn't kick the ball, making Carmel's defence flutter just as Santana expected. Kitty then jogged up but instead of kicking the ball she rolled the ball towards the centre just as Santana started her run-up too, and kicked the ball as it slowly rolled, curling it towards the near post.

The keeper did well to readjust, but the ball was well-placed enough to soar over the wall and go in the net, just out of reach.

She scored.

Her teammates swarmed her for scoring a last-minute goal that surely won them the game, but all Santana could feel was that she cheated the system somehow by injuring their captain.

And when the final whistle blew with the final score being 2-1, all Santana could think was how Quinn walked up to her, said a simple "Well played" and went to talk to Santana's other teammates.

Santana shouldn't be surprised. Quinn was mad at her; she was mad at herself too.

Santana walked into the bathroom after their changing room celebration (which Brittany coaxed her into even though she wasn't in the mood) and when she saw who was at the sink it made all the good feelings about winning and all the guilt come back.

Quinn was standing in front of the mirror, having taken off her socks and examining her ankles which were red and blotchy, no doubt from blood.

Quinn saw that Santana had entered so she quickly straightened her posture and slipped her sock back on.

"You played really well today," Quinn said with a smile. "MVP I'd say with that brace."

"T-Thanks," Santana stuttered. She looked down, took a deep breath and blurted out, "I'm so so very sorry, Quinn."

Quinn quirked an eyebrow curiously. "Why?"

"Well, I hurt you really bad, I saw that it was all bleeding and stuff, and I just wanted to say that I didn't mean to go for your legs and I totally understand if you're mad at me," Santana rambled nervously.

Quinn giggled and if her voice was angelic, her giggle was god tier. "Seriously, it's fine, it's football, these things are bound to happen. Do you apologise for every foul you make?" she asked with mirth in her voice, beautiful hazel eyes having a soft twinkle.

"N-No…" Now that Quinn mentioned it, this was the very first time she felt this bad about a mistimed slide tackle. "Y-You're the first one."

Quinn laughed. "Don't worry about it," she whispered, slipping her shoe back on. "It looks worse than it feels, seriously. You played very well today, your crosses and shots have so much curve!"

"Thanks…" Santana felt herself blushing under Quinn's compliment. "You shoot really well too, you have so much leadership and composure as well… I wish I could be like you as a captain."

"Don't talk yourself down, you were amazing this game," Quinn smiled. "Good luck in the final!"

"T-Thanks…"

They stood in awkward silence before Quinn gave one final smile and headed for the exit.

"Wait!" Santana called before Quinn could get far. "Would you like to get coffee with me sometime?"

Wait, where the hell did that come from?

Quinn turned around, intrigued. "Hmm?" She hummed. "Yeah, sure! I would love to!"

"Oh okay… great!" Santana matched Quinn's beam even though she felt her face heating up too. "Um…"

Quinn reached into her bag and grabbed her phone, which she handed to Santana.

"Um… what's this for?" Santana stuttered.

"Put your phone number in here, silly!" Quinn giggled. "How are we going to contact each other otherwise?"

"Right," Santana blinked before putting her number inside.

"Great…" Quinn drawled as she retrieved her phone. "I'll call you soon so you'll have my number too! Looking forward to it!"

Santana could only smile as Quinn gave her a brief hug and then she left the bathroom.

Santana stared at where Quinn stood a second ago, breathing in her lovely scent that was still hovering in the air.

Now she knew why she felt she hadn't won after winning 2-1. Because only now with a potential date with the prettiest girl on earth? That's winning material.

Thanks for reading! To be honest I don't even know what this is but here's a sporty fic for you lol. I hate it personally and I might take it down a couple of days later, but I hope you enjoyed it!

Some terms that I used non-footballers might not understand:

pennant – a banner exchanged between the captains of the two teams before the game starts

overlap – when a full-back (a defender) runs further up the field than attackers to provide attacking power

break – a counterattack

nutmeg – when the ball goes through between a person's legs

man on – when a person with a ball is being closed down by an opposing player

vamos! – Let's go! in Spanish

parking the bus – playing all out defence

scoop turn – a skill move when the player drags the ball in a circular arc and turns away from the player

drag-back – a skill move when the player drags the ball back for a 180 turn

CDM – centre defensive midfielder

CB – centre back

MVP – most valuable player

brace – when a player scores 2 goals in a game (3 goals is a hattrick)